WHAT IS MARRIAGE
ENCOUNTER?

Marriage
Encounter is designed to
give married couples the
opportunity to examine
their lives together . .
. a time to share their
feelings, their hopes,
disappointments, joys
and frustrations . . .
and to do so openly and
honestly in a
face-to-face,
heart-to-heart encounter
with the one person they
have chosen to live with
for the rest of their
life.

The emphasis of Marriage
Encounter is on
communication between
husband and wife, who
spend a weekend together
away from the
distractions and the
tensions of everyday
life, to concentrate on
each other.

It's not a retreat, nor
a marriage clinic, nor
group sensitivity. It's
a unique approach aimed
at revitalizing
Christian Marriage.

This is a time for you
and your spouse to be
alone together. To
rediscover each other
and together focus on
your relationship for an
entire weekend. Every
marriage deserves that
kind of attention.

PRAYER FOR THE 40th Anniversary of WWME Philippines

November 18-20, 2016
Nature’s Village Resort, Talisay City
Diocese of Bacolod

Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the gift of life and love,
for the gift of marriage and family.
When you created man and woman in your image and likeness,
you inscribed deep in the heart of every man and woman
a deep longing for love and communion.
In your loving providence, you give fulfillment to this deep longing for love and communion in marriage, where “man leaves father and mother and clings to his wife and the two of them become one flesh.”

We lift up to you all married couples throughout the PHILIPPINES,
that they may become incarnations of your great love for humanity.

We lift up to you all our priests throughout the world,
that they may continue to enhance and strengthen Christian marriage through loving exercise of their priestly ministry.

Bless our families as you did the Holy Family of Nazareth.

May our families truly become a Church in the home, where love and forgiveness, understanding and peace, compassion and mercy abound.

May our children grow not only in age, but also in grace and wisdom before your Presence like Jesus your son.

Bless the coming WWME 40th anniversary. May couples, priests and religious come together in the spirit of sharing and learning, in the spirit of truth and love.

Bless the host ZONE, the DIOCESE OF BACOLOD. Pour out your bountiful blessings on all couples, priests and religious as they share their time, talent and treasure to make the 40thanniversary of WWME a fruitful one.

Grant, O Heavenly Father, that we do all these to glorify your name. Send us Your Holy Spirit and set us on fire!

On Thursday, July 28, 2016, Pope Francis spoke from his balcony to young people present in Krakow, Poland. The primary focus of his address was married life. Pope Francis listed and explained “three key words” for married couples to embrace in their everyday lives, a theme he returns to often. These three words, which Pope Francis said strengthen marriages, are “permission, thanks, and forgiveness.”

Pope Francis advised spouses to seek out the opinion of the other before making decisions. He also suggested that spouses express gratitude to each other frequently, for “the sacramental relationship is maintained with this sentiment of gratitude, of thanks.” Finally, Pope Francis concluded his address by emphasizing the value and importance of forgiveness in the context of married life. The pope encouraged married persons to strive to end each day in harmony and peace with each other.

Pope Francis called out all young married couples in particular, declaring how courageous they are for partaking in the Sacrament of Marriage: “I tell them that they are the ones who have courage, because it’s not easy to form a family.” The Pope invited the youth present at his balcony address to pray for all engaged and married couples, as well as for families. Read the full address here.

Pope Greets From Window - CTV Screenshot

Following his first World Youth Day event with the young people in Blonia Park Thursday evening, Pope Francis appeared at the window of the Archbishopric of Krakow to greet the faithful gathered in the Square in front. Among those gathered were many couples and newlyweds.

Rome, Italy, Jun 16, 2016 / 02:56 pm (CNA/EWTN
News).- Updated June 17, 2016 to include a clarification by the Vatican:
Pope Francis approved a revision to the official transcript to say that “a
portion” of sacramental marriages are null, instead of “the great majority.”

Pope Francis said Thursday that many sacramental marriages today are not
valid, because couples do not enter into them with a proper understanding of
permanence and commitment. While he initially said in unscripted comments that “the great majority of our
sacramental marriages are null,” he later approved a revision of these remarks.

Recall s That Today Is 50th World Day of Communication

Pope Francis noted that today is the 50th World Day of Communication, expressing his hope that communicators for the Church always unite truth and mercy.

The Pope mentioned today’s commemoration after praying the midday Regina Caeli with those in St. Peter’s Square.

His message for the world day this year focuses on “Communication and Mercy: A Fruitful Encounter.”

The Holy Father cited his message for this year in noting that the world day was established by the Second Vatican Council, and that the “council fathers, reflecting on the Church in the modern world, understood the crucial importance of communication, that can ‘build bridges between individuals and within families, social groups and peoples. This is possible both in the material world and the digital world.’”

“I offer everyone in the field of communication a warm greeting,” he said, “and I hope that our way of communicating in the Church always has a clear evangelical style, a style that unites the truth with mercy.”

From a treatise on
John by Saint Augustine, bishop

(Tract. 65, 1-3: CCL 36, 490-492)

The new commandment

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another. This commandment
that he is giving them is a new one, the Lord Jesus tells his disciples. Yet was
it not contained in the Old Law, where it is written: You shall love your
neighbor as yourself? Why does the Lord call it new when it is clearly so old?
Or is the commandment new because it divests us of our former selves and clothes
us with the new man? Love does indeed renew the man who hears, or rather obeys
its command; but only that love which Jesus distinguished from a natural love by
the qualification: As I have loved you.

This is the kind of love that renews us. When we love as he loved us we
become new men, heirs of the new covenant and singers of the new song. My
brothers, this was the love that even in bygone days renewed the holy men, the
patriarchs and prophets of old. In later times it renewed the blessed apostles,
and now it is the turn of the Gentiles. From the entire human race throughout
the world this love gathers together into one body a new people, to be the bride
of God’s only Son. She is the bride of whom it is asked in the Song of Songs:
Who is this who comes clothed in white? White indeed are her garments, for she
has been made new; and the source of her renewal is none other than this new
commandment.

Edgar Bebing and Fr. Junjun

TO ALL MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER COUPLES:

May the Peace, Love, Freedom which our Lord brought to us through His Resurrection be with you all.

We continue to journey in this world as pilgrims, a walk in faith pilgrimage towards our "new Jerusalem."

We always consider that we need provisions in this journey in order for us to reach our destination.We need one another as husband and wife, to be companion to walk with. We need someone with whom we could share our experiences,doubts, fears, longings and anxieties in life. But the most important thing that we should not forget is the abiding presence of the Resurrected Lord though He comes to us sometimes unrecognized. This is the fruit of the resurrection. This is the Good News for us all. This is the kind of faith we should live.